Abstract

“Pi of the Sky” experiment has been designed for continuous observations of
a large part of the sky, in search for astrophysical phenomena characterized
by short timescales, especially for prompt optical counterparts of Gamma
Ray Bursts (GRBs). Other scientific goals include searching for novae and
supernovae stars and monitoring of blasars and AGNs activity. “Pi of the Sky” is a fully autonomous, robotic detector, which can operate for long periods of time without a human supervision. A crucial element of the detector is
an advanced software for real-time data analysis and identification of short
optical transients. The most important result so far has been an independent
detection and observation of the prompt optical emission of the “naked-eye” GRB080319B.